argh

[dragonlady7]

Have kept pushing; guest bed is now cleared off entirely, and everything is sorted, and not just dumped into boxes. Well, not much anyway. And I finally actually cleared out a laundry basket that I've been dumping junk into for literally years. It's hard to convey how difficult it is for me to actually sort things in a meaningful way. On some level it seems really basic-- like laundry, you have pants, shirts, sweaters, underwear, right?
But what about leggings? Some of them are like pants. Some of them are like tights, which go with socks.
I wind up with things, like, sorted into spectrums. And the shirts-- well, this one is a tank top I wear with nice things, this is a grubby work tank-top, those don't belong together. This is a short-sleeved work shirt, this is a long-sleeved shirt I usually wear over a tank top. This is--
you see how I have trouble putting them all into a pile together. And then I put that pile in a drawer, and what happens then is that I can no longer see any of those garments, so I no longer own them. So I no longer wear them.
Even when I periodically remind myself they're in there, I don't wear them. And then I'm like, "oh hm there's a sale on at [clothing store i like], and I really could use a tank top to wear under this shirt, let me see-- oh there's a twofer, I'll just get two, I'd like to wear that shirt more." And then I have three tank tops to wear under that shirt, and by the time I rediscover the first one, I've put away the shirt I'd wear it under and can no longer find it.


Maybe I should just get rid of almost all of my clothing, and live minimally like rich people on the Internet think I should, but it has taken me years to find clothes I like, and I also live three whole separate lifestyles; I work retail, and need a wardrobe commensurate, and I work at the farm in the summer, and so need summer farm clothes, and I work at the farm in the autumn and spring and sometimes winter, so I need winter farm clothes, and also sometimes I'm at my house, so that's a fourth level of clothing. And for years I had to have a lot of workout clothes because I did derby three to four times a week, and it was such torture to find shit that fit me I can't bear to get rid of it even though it's not really ideal for anything I do...

I would hang things in a closet but Dude has taken over the closet in our bedroom and I can't actually get near it. Occasionally things of mine do get put in there; I recently lost a favorite dress that way for almost a year, and finally thought to myself it has to be in there and climbed up and stood on top of the pile that is all of Dude's clothing, and dug through his shirts and sure enough, actually it was two of my favorite dresses together on a hanger for some reason. (I did Not put them in there.)

So I need to daydream about a way to display my clothing while storing it. If I can't see it, it doesn't exist and I can't wear it. I own two very nice dressers I like a lot, and everything in them is dead to me as soon as they go in there. :(
At the yurt I have a nice hanging drawers thing, and I roll my stuff so I can see them in there mostly, and that works but mostly because I only have about five to seven of each garment at any given time; I don't store a lot of clothing in the yurt because the roof could blow off while I'm not there, and then it's that much more shit for whoever discovers it to deal with.

Comments

[mosylu]

Remember how in Clueless, Cher had that computer program?

Just saying.

[musesfool]

Would a stand-alone rack help? Something like this? I’ve thought about it because I’m always shoving clothes in drawers and then forgetting I own them or where I put them.

[toujours_nigel]

I was going to say hang them up, but that doesn't seem to be possible.
I spent two years with all my clothes on the floor in front of the closet because I was too fucked up to make myself care, so I absolutely get you. But maybe make piles of At Work and At Home, just to start, rather than types of clothing? That's one of the things that has helped me sort stuff, cause even if I'm tired I can just roll up and shove stuff into the relevant shelf and deal with it later.

[harpers_child]

Can I just say "same" out of ADD solidarity? IDK how to help. At this point I just keep the stuff I wear the most in stacks on top of my dresser. Or stuff I could wear again lives on the chest at the foot of the bed.

At some point I should come to terms with the fact that most of my "nice" stuff is never going to get worn again because I just don't have that kind of life.

[rmc28]

I use open shelves for my clothes so I can see them (IVAR from IKEA). And I have a hanging rail I made by screwing a towel rail to the underside of a shelf. Stuff on the rail that doesn't get worn much needs a dustcover, but those aren't too expensive.